Copyright 2018 Mitul Kotecha

…or should I say a few EUR more. This is what the Greek authorities must be wondering. Once again Greek worries weighed on equities and risk appetite as a whole. Although the saga is turning into one big yawn, markets have not had their fill with the bad news coming from this small eurozone economy. Talks between Greek officials, International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Central Bank (ECB) and European Union (EU) began yesterday but are expected to go on for several days or weeks until a joint text is issued on May 15, just days ahead of a EUR 8.5 billion bond redemption by Greece.

The talks have done nothing to prevent Greece’s bond yields moving higher, with the yield on 10-year bonds pushing well over 8% whilst the spread with Germany debt also blew out to over 500bps. The main fear in the market is that Greece will ultimately end up restructuring its debt. Moreover, contagion fears have dealt a blow to southern European sovereign CDS especially Portugal. It wasn’t plain sailing for German bonds either, with yesterday’s auction of EUR 3 billion of 30-year Bunds failing to sell the full amount.

Another casualty of ongoing Greece concerns is the EUR, with the currency under performing other majors and still on its path towards EUR/USD 1.3300 in the near term and onto 1.3150 after. EUR also looks vulnerable on the crosses and EUR/GBP in particular is one to watch, with the 28 January low around 0.86029 likely to be targeted over the near term. UK employment data gave some relief to GBP yesterday, with further direction coming from retail sales data today and the next televised leaders’ debate.

At some point the market will become fatigued with consensus beating earnings and the positive impact on equities will become less marked. This point is approaching but we’re not quite there yet. Apple, Morgan Stanley and Boeing did not disappoint, with earnings easily beating forecasts. Boeing’s earnings in particular helped industrials to be the best performing sector on the S&P 500 although the overall index closed marginally lower.

Earnings today include Amazon.com, American Express, Credit Suisse, Microsoft, Nokia, and PepsiCo. It is becoming plainly obvious that market expectations for earnings are too pessimistic but as noted above the positive market impact of good earnings is likely to wane.

On the data front, highlights include March existing home sales, jobless claims and Producer Price Index (PPI). There will be less focus on PPI given that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) over the month has already been released whilst claims are likely to resume a path lower following the jump over the past couple of weeks. Existing home sales are likely to post an impressive gain as indicated by firm pending home sales data.

Overall, it appears that risk appetite is creeping back into the market psyche but the ongoing battle between positive earnings/data versus European/Greek woes suggests that there will be no clear direction for markets. Improving risk appetite will ultimately win but current conditions will leave currencies trading within well worn ranges, with the exception of the underperforming EUR. In contrast the USD index is likely to remain supported, taking solace from positive data releases.

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